Back in Melbourne

It is strange to be back in the city and without an ocean or river at hand to dip into when the mood takes me. When I left Byron Bay (a week ago) I thought how I had to brush the sand off my feet and move on. Last night I had a shower (my first for a week) and washed my hair, which was great. Even after scrubbing I still had river mud on my feet, though it came off on the towel eventually. The turtle tattoo is healing up nicely, by the way, though still a bit scabby. I've now got a turtle as a constant companion!

So, back in the city. I sat up far too late last night messing about with emails and blogs. I got a great email from Melanie, prompted by my blog about Sibford (we went there together). Thanks to Aisha too for her blog comments. That's two more people I now know are reading my blog.

I slept until 9.00 a.m this morning. I'd have liked to sleep longer, but I had promised to ring Paul. As it was he texted me a little after 9.00 (i.e. 10.00 p.m. GMT) to ask 'are you there?'. It was good to speak to him again after a week. He's just had his jabs for Thailand, as it is a little over 2 weeks now until his flight. Apparently Daisy (the cat) has also had her jabs; not for Thailand, but to go into a cattery while we are away. I wonder how she'll cope. She's never been into a cattery before as there has always been someone - Danny, or a friend or a neighbour - there to feed her. None of my cats has ever been in a cattery - I wouldn't have been able to afford it. Apparently it's going to cost #4.50 a day - and that's the cheap end of the scale! At that rate I don't think I can afford it now, given that I'm planning a fair bit of future travelling.

I went out for brunch, at the Rathdowne Bakery, just down the road. Had a quick browse in Rathdowne Books afterwards, but didn't by anything. After cashing some money at the ATM, I walked back along Curtain Street and Nicholson Street, just for variety's sake. I'm puzzled as to why the street names round here seem familiar - Rathdowne Street, Curtain Street and Nicholson Street. I've come to the conclusion that it must be from novels. But the only novel I can recall reading that was set in Melbourne is Monkey Grip, by Helen Garner. It's a tale of '70s bohemia which deals with heroin abuse, amongst other things. I found it in Shipley Library, back in the mid-'80s, when I was still living in Manningham. I recall it being summer when I read it and I think it was before I started work, so it would have been 1985: the summer that I finished at Bradford College, with a degree in Organisation Studies; the summer before my Dad died. My Dad died in November and I discovered then that he'd been back in the UK since May of that year, living in Brighton after 18 years in Israel. That was a weird time. My whole life was pretty odd then, out of kilter. I remember that I wrote to Melanie when my Dad died. She was then teaching at Sibford, by a strange turn of events. She wrote back to say how odd it was to be at Sibford, of all places, remembering me as a child there so clearly, and how excited I would be when I got a letter from my Dad.

Over brunch (which included a couple of long black coffees of course, as well as a very nice veggie supreme focaccia) I made a few notes of things I want to do and places I want to see over the next couple of weeks:

• Go to Philip Island to see the penguins. Kim says there are koalas there too
• Wilson's Promontory
• The Great Ocean Road (west of Melbourne)
• William Ricketts Sanctuary (which was on the DVD of Billy Connolly's Australian World Tour) - somewhere in the Dandenongs I think, only about 25 km from Melbourne
  
• Visit the Melbourne markets - Victoria and St Kilda. I could tie a visit to St Kilda in with a visit to Lise, who lives there.
• Do a dive. The water will be much colder down here, but it will probably be the last dive I do for some time, and it will be warmer than diving in the UK

I need to look into the options for getting around, either using buses and coaches for day trips (organised or not) or hiring a car. I might look into getting to Tasmania. I did just look at flights on Virgin Blue and the cheapest option is to fly to Launceston, which would cost about $140-150 return. Flights to Hobart cost more. It'd be nice to go by sea, across the Bass Strait, if I'm going to do it at all. But that of course takes more time, and probably costs more. I'll investigate.

I did make some notes before I left home on places I wanted to visit whilst based here in Melbourne. I'll refer back to them.